PANJIM: A portion of the centuries-old Panjim-Ribandar causeway caved in on Wednesday evening. Luckily, no casualty was reported nor any vehicles were damaged on this busy causeway built during the Portuguese regime.
The collapsed portion of the causeway, around 300 metres from the Divja circle, has been covered/protected within stones as a precaution even as the movement of vehicles continued unhindered.
A portion of the causeway caving in is not new and there have been instances in the past of even a part of a culvert at the Ribandar end of the causeway collapsing a few years ago.
The people and motorists have appealed to the PWD to repair and re-strengthen the causeway on war footing. The people are now demanding a permanent solution rather than carrying out temporary patch work.
The heritage lovers had also written to the Goa government, Union government and the UNESCO, Mumbai, through the Archaeological Survey of India (ASDI) requesting them to repair the causeway and to preserve it. However, this century-old causeway is not listed as a heritage monument by the UNESCO.
